The solution to abandoned tents & waste?

[Jack_FM]

Note for moderators - I have had permission to post this on this board from Neil at eFestivals.

 

Hi all, 

 

I wanted to get your feedback on this as festival-goers. We all know the big problem festivals such as Glasto & Reading have with abandoned tents & general litter post-event… many things have been tried, including getting messages out to the campers about taking their tent home with them, eco-bonds etc. 

 

It seems to me the only thing that is really going to solve this is having a pre-pitched tent for every camper at the festival. You turn up to a pre-pitched tent, and you just leave it at the end of the festival, packed down & taken away by BassCamp. Through people I’ve talked to in the industry, I think this is what festivals are going to soon introduce as the solution.

 

On the back of this research I’ve set up something called BassCamp as a service that could do this. BassCamp is an affordable pre-pitched service… starting at £20 per person on top of your festival ticket, and grouping friends together in their own tents. The idea is to make it affordable enough that it costs the same to buy a small tent from Amazon, and with BassCamp you'd get a superior quality, larger tent (made from polycotton canvas, which has better insulation than the standard nylon/polyester tents, meaning you'll be warmer at night!). 

To make it attractive we’d try and include things like a bar, campsite social area, silent discos in the campsite. It might eventually look like this:

 

 

And you can read more about it here: www.basscampuk.com

 

I would love to get your feedback on this. Would you switch to pre-pitched if it was made into an affordable, and attractive experience? If so why, and if not why not? 

 

I know Camplight and Tangerine Fields are the companies already operating in this space… but still the majority of campers opt for standard general camping. I suspect this is because people value the general campsite experience, not wanting to pay the extra money for pre-pitched. So my thinking is to create a pre-pitched service that preserves that general campsite experience, and even adds to it. If you're a fan of this, is there anything you'd like to see added to the campsite experience? 

I’d highly value your comments, positive and negative. Thanks!
 

Jack

 

[Daveograve]

Money making business rubbish, go to Reading!!!

[chazwwe]

Hi there and welcome. 

I've looked into it a bit of getting pre erected pitches, especially with EU festivals. My main concern has always been I don't really know what I'm getting until I'm there. In terms of size of tent/other bits and bobs.

The issue is as well is that now a days its not just tents. Its everything, from camping chairs to sleeping bags that get left. I think this kinda stuff is good for future festivals but I wouldn't want it to be the only option. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by chazwwe

[Sawdusty surfer]

Recycle the guilty.

[Old_Johno]

Did pre erected camping at a Spanish festival, tent leaked, no porch.

My tent never leaks, had a porch for dirty boots/ chairs. 

I for one would never consider pre erected camping again. As others have said you don’t know what your getting. 

[Hugh Jass]

May I be the first to say.... fuck that.

[Quark]

It's a no from me thanks. If you were approaching it in the way that Camplight were last time they were at Glastonbury, with an area within the main camping fields and no other bolt ons, I'd be more interested.

If I'm reading your pitch correctly, this would be a field outside of the main festival, is that right? If so then you're still entering and leaving the festival every day, so no matter what bars or entertainment you provide I dont think you'll ever really replicate the campsite feel.

Like I said, not for me. Also largely because that's £20 I could spend on booze and food ?

[danmarks]

Genuine question. Whats the difference between this and tangerine fields etc? Guessing if pre pitched it will be formal set out- no random tents in between so some kind of fence would be used? Also how can it be so cheap? Even tiny festivals where ive gone pre pitched its minumum 90quid for basic.  Obviously if 20 is realistically sustainable then thats fantasitc.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

I’d say don’t bother/worry about the social/silent disco bit, at least when it comes to Glastonbury.

I’ve stayed at Lovefields a couple of times through necessity. They have a restaurant and a bar with bands performing there later on in the evening. In the two times I’ve stayed there I’ve never spent a second longer there than I needed to, why would you? The best festival in the world is going on for pretty much 24 hours a day, no need to spend a second of your time elsewhere unless it’s to sleep.

It’s akin to the BBC showing a live performance from their studio, utterly pointless, just show the bands actual performance.

 

[Ayrshire Chris]

This just isn’t Glastonbury.   pre erected for every camper? 

Imagine rows and rows and rows of identical tents, like an enormous worthy view. Glastonbury is just a huge site with camping areas that are suited to the individual needs whether you want to party all night, have a bit of tranquility, take kids etc. I hesitate to us the word but the haphazard way of positioning tents of all sizes, descriptions and colours is a thing of real beauty. We don’t want it looking like a troop camp preparing for the  D day landings!   Money and cost of preerected tents is most certainly Not the issue ,  it’s the ethos of Glastonbury that’s at stake and having massive fields of regimented tents would erode this.  Folk leaving equipment is a serious problem but this ain’t the way for me to solve it. Maybe more Stringent checks on the last day possibly and give as high a profile as possible to the leave no trace campaign. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by Ayrshire Chris

[henry bear]

Perhaps you can fill the Pyramid field with pre-erected seating too?  Starting at £20 right at the back. Everyone in their right place.

Edited November 10, 2019 by henry bear

[MetaKate]

Yeah I dont think pre erecting tents for 135k odd people is really a sustainable option. Itll never happen at Glastonbury. 

Plus last year 99.3% of tents were taken home. People are becoming more aware of their own bad behaviors and more conscious of the environment and I genuinely think leaving tents (at this festival at least) is a thing of the past. Yeah, theres always a few dickheads but they're the same people who would trash your pre erected tents anyways. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

14 minutes ago, henry bear said:

Perhaps you can fill the Pyramid field with pre-erected seating too?  Starting at £20 right at the back. Everyone in their right place.

Why stop at pyramid seating? What about toilet vouchers? Buy a book of them and say one voucher for using the SE corner long drops, two for the less rank ones at theJP field and five for using a compost loo. Urinals included in basic ticket price. 

[henry bear]

The bottom line though - yes it is an issue, but one that is (as @MetaKate states above) improving and hopefully will continue to improve as people become more aware of the consequences of their their actions.

Not everything should be seen as a business opportunity and the idea that we lose the freedom of choice of bringing our own camping equipment so that your company can satisfy its shareholders is not one that’ll go down too well here.

[Smeble]

Education is the only way to stop the waste at festivals. And it appears to be working, at Glastonbury anyway.

[Pinhead]

Pre-erected tents solve the issue (in dry years at least - I wonder how many could be recovered after a seriously wet year), but this makes Glasto a Butlins. Lobby manufacturers to stop making cheap disposable tents and educate intead. This year saw a marked improvement - we can get there.

 

[squirrelarmy]

Some festivals do focus on pre erected tents but as has been mentioned already there’s no substitute for your own tent, especially when it’s perfect for your own needs.
 

For travelling light it is good to have the option for pre pitched tents, There are green versions available too. The Kartent is designed to be a disposable tent that is good for the environment. It’s actually made from cardboard. However I’m not sure how well one of those would survive the average Glastonbury. 

[Mark E. Spliff]

1 hour ago, Jack_FM said:

I’d highly value your comments, positive and negative. Thanks!

Moving away from plastic to canvas tents can only be a good thing, in terms of waste.  If you could get a reasonably priced, washable, repairable, festival-specific (e.g. porch and two openings to allow through-draught) tent, that would be a winner.

I'm assuming you're looking at the Camplight model - i.e. putting your tents in an area within the festival?  If so, and providing you kept costs low, you would have a lot of demand - many people will pay to avoid the hassle of having to race to find a pitch, especially if they're on a later coach.   Other than showers, I don't think anything else you could offer in terms of facilities would make it any more attractive to punters.  The convenience is everything.

Supposedly, Michael Eavis has mentioned that 100% pre-pitched tents is the logical conclusion to the waste problem.  I still go round collecting tents etc. on the Monday and I've got no illusions about waste having significantly improved over any previous dry year.  If 2020 is a muddy one, then I'm sure the Farm will be left in the same post-apocalyptic state it was in 2007.  So if you believe Eavis was serious about this, then anyone who can run a successful pre-erected operation might find they're in a rapidly growing market.

Personally, I'm dubious about the concept of 100% pre-pitched.  The administration would be mind-bending, and I'd be more than a little wary about showing up to the festival without any choice of who I was going to be camped near.

[Crazyfool01]

quite  simple reason why I and many others wouldn't switch ... we all have perfectly good / great tents so in apparently solving an issue you create another ... in that all these tents become surplus to requirement and its actually quite nice having some choice as to where to pitch and who you choose to be near to some extent  

[Pinhead]

Whats to stop peeps from trashing their pre-pitched esp. in a wet year and you making a loss.

[Ayrshire Chris]

The incredible mosaic of colours, shapes and sizes of the tents that carpet the valley during festival week is a breath taking spectacle.  Would hate to see that replaced with row upon row of identical tents.  It’s also an experience wandering about the site seeing everyone doing their own thing.  pre erected for everyone? I can’t see it.  There’s a place for worthy view and a mix of own tents and pre erected tents is best. 

[stuartbert two hats]

Not for me.

[grumpyhack]

No thanks.  Whenever I've tented at Glastonbury I've always taken everything home. We used to do a fingertip check of our patch to make sure that things like pegs weren't left in the ground.   Broken poles were repaired at home for the next festival.  That surely has to be a better approach than pre-erected.

[DeanoL]

It doesn't really solve anything?

What you're doing is paying people to clean, dismantle and pack away everyone's tents. So why does it matter if they are pre-errected or you're doing to someone's existing tent? Except you're then doing that for 100% of people, instead of just the 10-20% that leave their stuff.

You can ensure the tents are re-used, but actually the festival could do that if they paid people enough. Get them to assess, clean, fix all the leftover tents. Then they could be re-sold or donated to charity. (Charities do want good tents, they just don't want to have to sort thousands of them manually). Same cost per tent as what you're doing with pre-errected ones.

[gizmoman]

If this was the setup at Glastonbury you would need triple the existing camping space, tents are usually touching each other and every available sq metre of space is currently used (in the most popular fields at least), also what would stop people bringing in additional "toilet tents" etc.?